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Academic Coaching: Empowering Women and Allies

Learn how to empower yourself and others to challenge biased cultural "norms" and utilize tools in coaching with which engineers are familiar. By asking questions, a coach can help the coachee to see for themselves any negative assumptions they might be making about themselves that are actually a result of cultural/societal norms or bias at work. With that understanding the coachee can then progress with the coach through questions to come up with goals and action plans to persist in spite of bias.

Inherent in the structure of academic coaching is the engineering design process, which engineering coaches will be comfortable and familiar with: identify the underlying problem, explore solutions, create timeline/action items, along with accountability and sharing of results (and revisiting the coaching process, if needed). Using this process in coaching with students or mentees in a corporate setting can be a valuable tool.

Our Presenter

Jennifer L. Groh, PhD, Associate Director of the Women in Engineering Program (WIEP) at Purdue University
Dr. Groh has invested 60 hours of training in academic coaching with LifeBound Inc. (based in Denver, CO). She is currently pursuing more advanced training in coaching to become a certified LifeBound Affiliate with a specialized focus in serving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) populations nationwide.

Her interactive workshops on elements of coaching have been well received by a variety of audiences, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff in higher education and corporate representatives. Dr. Groh enjoys sharing coaching strategies which people can adapt for leadership endeavors, difficult conversations, fostering deeper conversations, and countless other scenarios. In addition to leading these engaging sessions, Dr. Groh integrates coaching into her mentoring interactions with students, WIEP programming, and her personal life.